


In Delicates

by GalaxyAqua



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Friendship, Hopeful Ending, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 20:39:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8175257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyAqua/pseuds/GalaxyAqua
Summary: Truly, Akane’s never been good with comforting people, but for Sonia, she will try.





	

**Author's Note:**

> spoilers for dr3 hope side!!

Sonia’s hands are delicate – long, tapered fingers and slim glossy nails – rather picturesque when it comes down to it, but to be perfectly honest, all of Sonia is immensely, _immensely_ picturesque. She’s got a face like the girls on magazine covers used to; the heart-shaped jawline, the pale skin, the light dusting of pink on her cheeks. The long, flowing, rich blonde hair and the sky blue eyes.

That’s the image of Sonia Nevermind.  

In the conventional sense, she is a goddess incarnate; beauty from the tip of her dainty head down to her slender feet, soft and smooth. Her figure dips in, accentuating a small waist and fuller hips, and it’s this kind of _impossibly perfect_ that leaves people in both awe and envy.

So it’s nothing short of shocking to see her sobbing into her pretty little hands, wretched, in the corner of a tiny bathroom, like a shattered idol; the mirror before her covered with splashes of water and trickling blood. Rather than shocking, Akane supposes, it’s on the verge of heartbreaking. Unnerving fear, coupled with unnerving pain.

She knows too, after stepping into the bathroom, that Sonia is automatically aware that she is there.

Sonia doesn’t acknowledge her arrival, but she knows, because Akane knows Sonia much more than she’d ever thought she would. She knows that Sonia Nevermind is so very caught up in the way other people see her that there is no possible way she’d let her guard down; even if in the midst of erupting into a sob-fest in a common facility bathroom, where anyone could have passed by and heard. Passed by and seen; the angel of a girl, weeping and bleeding for an inescapable past.

The very sight makes Akane feel ill, and she wonders if she feels like this from the sight alone, how it must feel to be Sonia, hunched over the sink and humiliated to have been caught in her hysteria; in the brief moments of weakness she has shown since waking from the Neo World Program.

Akane doesn’t do very well with comforting people – never has, because she’s always been stronger on her own and that won’t change even now – so she doesn’t move an inch from the door; doesn’t rush over to wrap her arms around shaking shoulders, or wipe tears off of a beautiful princess’ face.

Instead, she stands, in silence, and waits. The usual energy in Akane’s body – that which would make her bounce on the heels of her feet or rock back and forth – dissipates. She’s always running low these days, but it’s nothing a bit of sleep can’t fix.

(It’s a pity she’s an insomniac, huh?)

Sonia wipes her tears slowly, splashes her face with water, and doesn’t look up.

“Hey,” The blonde manages, after a deep long breath. Her voice is confident and strong, even though she doesn’t look a hint like either of those things. “Were you looking for me?”

“Sorta,” Akane replies breezily, shrugging all the same. “Kamukura says he needs everyone in the pod room. But take yer time.”

“I can go now.” Sonia says, then winces when blood starts dripping from her hand. “Well. In another moment, perhaps.”

“What happened?” Akane blurts, “Maybe I should take ya to the med bay, instead.”

“No need,” Sonia protests, waving her off with her other hand - her clean hand. “I’m fine. It’s just a little cut.”

“Looks more like ya punched yer hand through the mirror than a ‘cut’, to me.”

“ _Akane_ ,” Sonia says, with emphasis. “Let’s just go find Kamukura.”

It means _let’s drop it,_ and Akane knows this, and she’s both frustrated and in complete understanding as to why Sonia just won’t let her help.

Akane is not delicate – she is brash, headstrong and her hands are calloused with years of climbing and working and scrambling. Where Sonia’s limbs are slender and soft, Akane’s are hard muscle and scratches and scars. Her skin shines copper in the sun, and her eyes and hair are both murky brown.

Had none of this whole _Hope’s Peak bullshit_ happened, Akane is sure that she and Sonia wouldn’t have even spoken to one another – and if they had, it would have been through courtesy alone. Between a princess and a pauper, there is no place for companionship; no place for forging any sort of connection at all.

But Akane Owari and Sonia Nevermind, bound by a perilous history and players of an epic tragedy, are not only foils but anchors for each other, and Akane isn’t going to leave Sonia to waste away alone.

For Kazuichi is busy with Kamukura – mechanics in heart and mechanics in mind – and Fuyuhiko, out of the five of them, barely holds himself afloat; so how could they help Sonia, the earth supporting their feet, when she begins to crumble?

Being a remnant of despair; a brainwashed dummy of a girl with the vision of a god, is not easy. Akane knows, as much as Sonia knows, as much as Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko and Kamukura know – just how hard it is.

And even though Akane believes firmly that she is much stronger on her own; she doesn’t believe the same applies for Princess Sonia Nevermind.

(But at the same time, even though Sonia is  _delicate_ , she isn't weak. She will get through this. They all will.

If there's anything Akane will hold onto, it's that.)

It’s why she tears off her shirt sleeve to wrap up Sonia’s bloody hand, and why she keeps her arm steady on the small of Sonia’s back as they walk through the empty hallways together. It’s why she tells Sonia all the words that never made a difference to her; on the chance that it might just be enough to get through. On the hope that Sonia will understand; she doesn’t need a kingdom to be royalty.

And that, ultimately, a princess is still a human being, and that’s okay.

“It’s gonna be fine,” Akane tells her, voice deep and sentiment secure. “Yer still gorgeous, and yer still strong. You can rebuild what ya lost.”

“But I can’t,” Sonia murmurs. “I can’t, I’m afraid there is nothing for me to go back to. If I had only protected my homeland, and stayed strong against despair, I…”

“Nobody blames you.” Akane says. “We all brought havoc and kicked people around, and let ‘em die in masses. Brutal as all hell. But ya know what? We know that. We don’t deny that.”

“It hurts. Incredibly. Terribly.” Sonia confesses, eyes welling up with the tears she'd only just been able to wipe away. “And we did all this. We shouldn’t be here right now.”

“But we are, ain’t we?”

Sonia remains silent, her shoes clacking quietly on the tiled floors. She still looks uncertain - lost, and fragile as a broken vase. Still stunning in pieces, but nowhere near the real thing. 

Truly, Akane’s never been good with comforting people, but for Sonia, she will try.

“Listen to me,” she starts to say, stopping in her tracks and pulling Sonia to a stop as well. She places both her hands on the princess' shoulders and makes her look at her - brown eyes to blue. “We can’t change the past, but we can change the future."

Sonia presses her lips into a tight line, and Akane pushes forward.

"Maybe we won’t ever be free from the despair, but then again, have we ever been?" The brunette asks. "If there’s anything left for us to do – apart from stuff our faces, of course – it’s to fix what we’ve destroyed. Rebuild. Atone and rebuild. And have a fucking feast because we'll never be the same, but time won't heal us, _we'll_ heal us.”

The princess lifts her delicate hands, and places them on Akane's forearms, pulling herself from the gymnast's grip. Akane lets her. Sonia then moves the hands to her waist, as she wraps her arms around Akane's neck. She still doesn't say anything, but Akane doesn't need her to.

She hears the princess' silent _thank you_ clear as day, and if she really just wanted a hug to begin with, then she should've simply asked. 

"... you good now?" Akane inquires, after a long while with Sonia seemingly stuck in her embrace. The blonde pulls away then, and pats down her skirt, looking a little embarrassed.

"Yes." Sonia mumbles mildly, picking at the bracelet around her dainty wrist. Her complexion is growing red, and Akane can already hear the apologies rising in Sonia's throat - for being unladylike, or too forward, or whatever: she doesn't know, and she doesn't care.

"Oh, _Sonia_." Akane says before she can even start, full of feeling and equally full of _goddamnit Sonia_. The princess must sense this, because she tenses. Akane sighs, running a hand through her perpetually messy hair, trying to lighten the mood - hopefully for good. "Ya gotta get used to people bein' here for ya, precious. Don't ever go cryin' alone in the bathroom again, aight? Come find me, and we can hug it out. Unless you want to hug spiky-hair, or baby gangster. Or you know, Kazoo. You can hug Kazoo at yer own risk. He'd never let go."

Sonia smiles slightly at that, a tiny speck of brightness filling her features once more.

“See, it’ll be all right, Sonia!” Akane reassures her, fueled by the faint victory. “I may not be the smartest, but even I know that second chances... wait, are we on our third? Ack, whatever, _second chances_ aren’t given to people who can’t fulfil ‘em." She scratches the back of her neck awkwardly. "And y'know, I really believe we’re not bad people – we’re good people who’ve done bad things. Lots of bad things. But that doesn't change the first part. It might sound dumb to ya, but if anything, just believe in that with me, okay? Even just a little bit?”  

“Okay,” Sonia whispers, and Akane grins. 

They pick up their strides again - a tad faster than earlier - but before Akane knows it, they're both sprinting down the hallway in giddy laughter; like Akane hadn't found Sonia crying, and Sonia hadn't broken down completely from the raw _memories_ of everything. It feels like _freedom_.

Soon enough, the pod room lies ahead of them, and she brings her hand up to support Sonia's back again. Akane inhales and exhales deeply. She hasn't run like that in a long time - maybe not ever, since the Neo World Program. She kicks off her shoes, feeling the coolness of the floor beneath her feet. Sonia watches the action with careful eyes, and with one swift movement, kicks her heels off too.

"Let's go." Akane says, gesturing at the double doors. "Ladies first."

"Excuse me?" Sonia shoots back playfully. "Well, after you, then." She offers, imitating the gesture.

Akane rolls her eyes. "Now yer just stallin' for time."

Sonia laughs again, and Akane falls just a tiny bit more in love with her.

In the end, they open the doors together, determination reignited in Sonia’s magnificent sky blue eyes, and enter the pod room to find Kamukura smiling – no, _Hajime_ smiling – as he folds his hands in his lap and says, rather satisfied, “Guess what? I _did_ it.”

“Did what?” Sonia breathes.

“Holy fuck,” Akane says more fittingly.

Because Hajime did it; he made a miracle happen.

For days they had thought it was impossible. Heck, Future Foundation had insistedit was impossible. But now, right before their eyes...

The pods lie open, white smoke billowing amidst murmurs of confusion, accompanied by Kazuichi _positively_   _screeching_ and Fuyuhiko _actually bursting into tears_.

And all their friends – their companions in suffering and the only people in the world that understand how it feels to have reached rock bottom, guns ablaze, to have swallowed despair and cried tears of agony for days and days and days – rise from the dead.

Akane looks at Sonia, and winks. “Told ya it’d be all right.”

Tears are streaking down the princess’ face again, but she’s glowing – and they serve no other purpose than to make her look more beautiful than she’s ever looked, with flushed cheeks and a brilliant smile. She grabs Akane's hand and squeezes tight; trembling in disbelief, as Hajime is literally bowled over by Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko both - the three boys tumbling to the floor.

“You were right.” Sonia says, huffing with happiness. “You were absolutely right.”

"Help me!" Hajime exclaims, ruining the moment. Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko pay him no mind; crushing him under their weight and shouting in his ears.

Sonia sends Akane one final look of sheer amazement, reaching up with one of those picturesque hands of hers, and swiping it across Akane's cheek.

"I'm going to go rescue him," Sonia beams. "Don't cry, princess. Smile."

It's only then that Akane realises that tears are running down her face, too.


End file.
